Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #1 - Meat-and-Potatoes

The Historical Food Fortnightly Challenges in the second half of 2014 and the first half of 2015 were educational, interesting, fun, and tasty!  My husband, Patrick, and I met the Challenges from cookbooks from 1950 and 1951, the years we were born.  The 27 Challenges became a blog and book that our family will cherish for years to come.

http://mid-centurymeals.blogspot.com/

 

 

This blog, A Place Setting In Time, will hold our adventures in food for whatever strikes our fancy.  We are starting with the first Challenge of the Historical Food Fortnightly:  Meat-and-Potatoes.  For all of the 2016 Challenges we will turn to a book I found over 10 years ago at a shop in Illinois in a little town next to the Mississippi River.

 

 

The book is entitled Twenty Lessons in Domestic Science.  It is by Marion Cole Fisher formerly of the St. Paul Institute of Arts and Science.

It is a condensed home study course.

 

Copyright 1916.  Choosing recipes from this book in 2016, 100 years later, should be an interesting and educational journey.  How have ingredients and techniques changed in these 100 years?  What have we learned about nutrition?  What progress have we made in preparation?

 

Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #1 - Meat-and-Potatoes (January 1 - January 14)  They're a staple for the tables in the most rustic cottages as well as the fanciest banquet tables - and it's also an idiom meaning a staple or the most basic parts of something.  Make a historic "meat-and-potatoes" recipe - however you interpret it.

 

For the first Challenge we take the Challenge literally selecting a recipe from Lesson VIII - Meats.

 

There on page 66 is a recipe for Hungarian Goulash (Gulyas).  I'm not familiar with the word Gulyas and find that it is the Hungarian word for a sheep- or cattle-herder.  I've been served Hungarian Goulash all my life at many potluck dinners, church suppers, and family get-togethers.  I always remember the base recipe being a ground beef and tomato with a macaroni.  So this recipe is completely different and sounds heavenly.

 

 





Using veal chuck as there wasn't any mutton available.  Yes, I would have tried it!

A yellow pepper in place of green.  A sign at the market stated that due to some severe weather, green peppers were in short supply.  No matter the century there will be shortages and necessary substitutions.

Pepper and onions sliced.

Drippings heated and onions and pepper added.



Cooked for 10 minutes.

Veal prepared.

Veal seared for 15 minutes and then water added to just cover meat.  Covered and simmered until veal was tender adding water to cover as necessary.

Potatoes diced. 

Potatoes added on top of meat mixture where they will steam until soft.

Recipe calls for a generous addition of paprika.  I used 2 tablespoons.  Evaporated milk added, stirred until heated through.

 

A hearty, aromatic, and satisfying meal!  Not quite a stew, not quite a soup, served with a crusty bread, it's a meal for a cold day whether you are indoors or out on the sheep ranch cooking over an open fire.

 

 

 

Love,

           Jeanette